REAL-TIME COMMUNICATION IN PACKET-SWITCHED NETWORKS

The dramatically increased bandwidths and processing capabilities of f uture high-speed networks make possible many distributed real-time app lications, such as sensor-based applications and multimedia services. Since these applications will have traffic characteristics and perform ance requirements that differ dramatically from those of current data- oriented applications, new communication network architectures, and pr otocols will be required. In this paper we discuss the performance req uirements and traffic characteristics of various real-time application s, survey recent developments in the areas of network architecture and protocols for supporting real-time services, and develop frameworks i n which these, and future, research efforts can be considered.